


for a second, you were all i needed

by wolfchester



Series: every heart breaks like a wave in the bay [2]
Category: Altered Carbon (TV)
Genre: F/M, kristin's perspective now yay, oh i just love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23259439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfchester/pseuds/wolfchester
Summary: his eyes are ryker’s. green-brown, piercing, framed by sharp eyebrows. his eyes are ryker’s, physically. but she doesn’t see elias when she looks at him.it’s all takeshi kovacs.
Relationships: Takeshi Kovacs/Kristin Ortega
Series: every heart breaks like a wave in the bay [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652896
Comments: 10
Kudos: 49





	for a second, you were all i needed

**Author's Note:**

> oh god i can't get enough of these two
> 
> i'm gonna try my BEST to write a third and final installment that will be a little longer. (keyword: TRY) 
> 
> pls accept my humble attempt at capturing the sexual tension / romantic feelings / complicated relationship of kristin and tak

She sleeps.

For the first time since Ryker was taken and put on ice, she sleeps through a whole night. No nightmares. No restlessness. No need to swallow a couple of pills to knock herself out. 

The night Kovacs is in her bed, she  _ sleeps. _

It’s not like she’d intended on fucking the man. It had just—  _ happened _ . And waking up in the morning, rolling over and feeling his warm body next to hers— well, she’s not exactly sorry about it.

Yeah, it’s complicated. Yeah, it’s weird sleeping with a guy she barely knows who’s wearing the sleeve of the man she loves. But not nearly as strange as she thought it was going to be. 

She had barely thought of Ryker the entire time.

The only point she had, really, was when Kovacs’ mouth had first opened to hers while she straddled him on the couch, and she’d realised she had been mentally preparing herself for the unsettling feeling that was sure to come with the kiss — that Kovacs would taste and feel and sound so much like Elias without really being him. But the feeling never came. 

As soon as her tongue touched his, it was all  _ Kovacs Kovacs Kovacs. _

Ryker always tasted like mint with a hint of nicotine. The dumbass tried to hide his habit from her with chewing gum all the time. She never fell for it. She used to kiss him anyway. 

Kovacs —  _ Takeshi _ , if they’re on a first name basis now — tasted like steel (likely from the blood on his face) and saltwater (sweat, or maybe tears). Intoxicating, heady,  _ different _ . 

_ When I look into his eyes, I see you looking back at me. _ Kristin Ortega is many things, but she’s no fucking liar. She meant every word. 

His eyes are Ryker’s. Green-brown, piercing, framed by sharp, angry eyebrows. His eyes are Ryker’s, physically. But she doesn’t see Elias when she looks at him — not then when wrapped in his arms and moaning into the crook of his shoulder, not now when touching his face gently in the early morning light. 

It’s all Takeshi Kovacs.

And she kind of hates herself for thinking such a thing, but she can’t fucking help it. 

The love crept up on her.

Silent, stalking like the fucking ghostwalker that’s been following her around, quietly infiltrating her heart without her knowing, until that moment when she’d touched the scar above his eye and confessed that  _ it’s been a long time since someone looked at me like that _ .

What will happen when all this is over? She doesn’t know. No fucking clue. But thinking that far ahead isn’t a priority right now. Touching Kovacs’ skin, gently stroking the soft inside of his arm until he wakes -- that’s the most important thing.

His eyes open to hers with a slow blink. Ryker’s eyes. Kovacs’ soul. His lips twitch into the tiniest of smiles. (And that’s something different between these two men: Ryker smiled. A lot. He was an angry bastard, that’s for sure, but he’d smile in photos and at her and she made him laugh until he was grinning wide. Kovacs doesn’t smile. So when he does, when she gets that glimpse of teeth and curved lips, she treasures it. This is one of those times.)

“Hey,” he says, voice scratchy with sleep. It makes her want to snuggle deeper under the covers with him, never let go, stay here forever. 

“Hey,” she replies, leaning over to cup his cheek and rub a thumb over his brow bone. He tips forward for a kiss. He still tastes like metal, but now it’s fuzzy and softer with sleep. Kristin opens her eyes, just a crack, when he kisses her. She watches his brows knit together tight, deep in concentration. Is he savouring this as much as she is? Is he wishing away the end of it all like she is?

He pulls away but a hand stays tangled in her hair at the base of her neck, heavy and comforting on her skin. “Are we gonna talk about this?” he mumbles in that very Kovacs way of his. 

“Do you want to?”

“No.”

“Good. I don’t either.”

“Too fucking complicated, huh?” He moves forward to bump his nose against hers. She reaches out to touch his chest and remembers they’re both still naked. The thought may have caused her to blush at another time, but she leaves the awkwardness behind and embraces it instead, sliding her left thigh between his, tugging herself forward to push up against his chest.

Ryker’s body. Kovacs’ body. Everything, everything, everything. 

She loves them both. Maybe it's really that simple.

Kristin presses her lips to his once, twice, three times. His fingers trail down her back, wrap themselves in her thick, dark hair. She opens her mouth to his again, holds onto the feeling of being enveloped in Kovacs’ arms, and whispers into his skin, “Way too fucking complicated.”

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on tumblr @guzmannunier if you, like me, would also die for kristin ortega
> 
> thank u for reading!!


End file.
